MVFD Firefighters Get Live Burn Training

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A huge structure fire on the north side of Moapa Valley Blvd. just west of Pinwheel Street in Logandale attracted a lot of attention on Saturday, Oct. 16 at about 1:00 pm.

Passersby might have thought it strange to see a house fully engulfed in flames while all of the firefighters in town were already on site, just standing and watching it burn. But in fact, it was actually the end of a live burn training exercise for the firefighters of Moapa Valley Fire District (MVFD).

A total of 21 volunteer firefighters received live burn training in the event with eight experienced instructors involved, some coming from Las Vegas to help teach.

Earlier in the day, groups of trainees took turns going through a specially prepared burn room in the structure.
“We did several rotations for the firefighters to go in there, to see fire behavior,” said MVFD Chief Stephen Neel. “We taught them things to look for and how to be able to suppress the fire.”

Neel said that the district had recently acquired a new Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) system. Firefighters had gone through intensive training in the use of the new equipment, he said.
“So this is the final part of the training on that to be able to get a live experience with the new SCBA with real live fire and real stress,” Neel said.

After the rotations inside the building, the firefighters performed a demonstration of a new fire suppression agent in the yard area just behind the structure. The chemical agent was mixed into a relatively small amount of water and applied to the burning materials.

“We did a training on a new encapsulating agent that we bought,” Neel said of this demonstration. “It encapsulates all of the fuel and the carcinogens and everything and puts the fire out quickly.”

Firefighters put three railroad ties together, poured on a diesel fuel accelerant, lit it and let it burn for about ten minutes. Then they applied about two gallons of water containing the new agent and it extinguished the fire immediately.

“We get a lot of calls on outside fires like trees, hay fires or railroad ties etc,” Neel said. “They are just really hard to get out and they take a lot of time and water to extinguish. So with limited resources we were looking into this agent that can cut down on how many resources it takes to extinguish a tough fire like that.”

After the training was complete, firefighters lit the structure on fire and let the entire house burn to the ground, only making efforts to prevent any of blaze from spreading beyond the house.

The training continued as the structure burned. “We discussed fire behavior, how to release smoke, and the energy, and how much oxygen that the fuel is getting,” Neel said. “It was a valuable learning experience.”

Neel said that an extensive legal procedure must take place before a live burn like this can be done. “There is a lot of paperwork involved and (the property owner) has to donate the structure to us through a use agreement contract,” Neel said. “They are basically donating their property for destruction and there is a lot of legal background that has to go into it.”